The invention relates to an electric circuit board component, in particular an RF coaxial connector, in which the housing of the component is secured on the circuit board by way of solder joints between the SMD solder connections provided on the bottom side of said housing and solder connections assigned thereto on the circuit board.
Electric circuit board components, in particular RF coaxial connectors, are frequently employed in electric transmission and connection means. Basically, there are employed three different connection types for the electrical connection between the mutually associated terminals on the side of the component and on the side of the circuit board.
In the connection typexe2x80x94first connection typexe2x80x94as employed e.g. in the connector known from document EP 0 582 960 A1, there are used pressing pins, whereby a soldering operation can be dispensed with. However, the utilization of such relatively voluminous pressing pins presupposes that the number thereof per component be limited in consideration of the as small as possible dimensions of such components. However, the number thereof per component is also limited considerably in that the pressing force to be applied in urging the pressing pins on the component side into the associated plated connecting holes on the circuit board side must not exceed a value given by the strength of the component. For, the pressing force to be applied is proportional to the number of pressing pins provided. The automatic provision of circuit boards with such components requires very expensive devices.
In the connection typexe2x80x94second connection typexe2x80x94as employed for example with the connector known from document EP 0 488 482 A1, the terminals consist of solder pins made of thin wires. Such solder pins may also be employed in relatively large numbers for components of quite small dimensions. However, such connectors upon co mounting thereof must be applied manually to the circuit board, as it is difficult to introduce the thin solder pins into their associated connecting holes in the circuit board. Upon application of such connectors on the circuit board, soldering of the solder pins in their associated connecting holes in the circuit board takes place by flow soldering.
In case of the connection typexe2x80x94third connection typexe2x80x94as utilized e.g. for the connector known from document DE 197 16 139 C1, so-called SMD (surface mounted device) solder connections are employed for establishing the electrical connections between component and circuit board. The provision of the circuit boards with components having SMD solder connections, in contrast to those having pressing pins or solder pins, has the great advantage that it can be carried out simply and rapidly by means of automatic xe2x80x9cpick and placexe2x80x9d machines. The disadvantage thereof is the low anchoring strength of the component on the circuit board established by these soldering joints. For this reason, the component must be additionally secured to the circuit board by means of bolts or rivets, so as to prevent damaging or even tearing off of the SMD solder joints due to occasionally unavoidable higher mechanical loads.
It is the object of the invention to indicate a further solution for sufficiently securing electric components having SMD solder connections to circuit boards, which does not require screws or rivets and is particularly simple in terms of production technology.
According to the invention, this object is met for such an electric circuit board component in that the housing, for additionally securing the same to the circuit board, has on the bottom side thereof a plurality of solderable bolt pins which engage in continuous plated bolt holes assigned thereto on the circuit board and are soldered in said bolt holes.
The invention is based on the finding that the loading of circuit boards with the aid of automatic pick and place machines is also possible if the component has solder-pin-like connecting elements which are soldered in the circuit board in associated continuous plated holes. The sole prerequisite in this regard is that their cross-sectional area is sufficiently large to allow utilization thereof as centering means by the automatic pick and place machines upon application of the component to the circuit board.
Expedient developments of the subject matter according to claim 1 are indicated in the additional claims 2 to 8.
A further development is indicated in claims 9 and 10 in the form of method of automatically providing circuit boards with circuit board components making use of the invention, with said method being particularly advantageous in terms of time and costs.